Mauritian Creole (Morysien)

Mauritian Creole is the lingua franca of Mauritius. Almost all of its vocabulary stems from French, with smaller numbers of words from diverse sources such as English and even Dutch and Portuguese. Though it is the main language of Mauritius, English is the official language of the island and French is widely understood and learnt.

Mauritian Creole is used maily for rapid dissemination of information among islanders, not commonly for official purposes or formal situations. It is not formalized, and is based and written on French sounds and writing. Creole is widely spoken across the whole island among people of all classes. Mauritian Creole is primarily a spoken language with close ties with French pronunciation but does not have some of the more deep and rounded consonants.